Joel, thanks for a very readable and interesting account of your visit to Starkville. I hope that the business relationship between the ARRL and Martin's companies may continue to the benefit of them both, and therefore to Amateur Radio. 73, Bob On 3/31/07, Joel Harrison <w5zn@arrl.org> wrote:
Greetings,
On March 14-15, Dave Sumner and I visited the facilities of MFJ Enterprises in Starkville, MS which includes not only the MFJ product line but Hygain, Ameritron, Mirage and Vectronics as well.
I had visited the MFJ facilities about 17 years ago when I was the Delta Division Director and traveled there to speak to the Starkville ARC. Dave has never been to MFJ's factory and Martin Jue has been asking me to come down for quite some time and see the improvements in the facilities, so we took advantage of the opportunity to make the trip.
Starkville is about a 4 ½ hour drive from my home and driving is much more convenient, and takes less time, than flying. Dave flew into the Golden Triangle Airport in Columbus, MS, about 10 miles from Starkville. Starkville is a small town of about 30,000 and is home to Mississippi State University.
I met Dave's flight around 3:30 PM Tuesday, March 13 and we then drove over to the Hampton Inn in Starkville. At 6:30 Martin met us at the hotel along with Randy Romero, the company's HR Manager who many of you have met at our Dayton Donor Reception, for dinner. We had a nice enjoyable evening visiting over dinner about a number of things related and unrelated to amateur radio. Randy and I are the same age. Although he is not a ham he grew up in Arkansas and attended Arkansas State University so we spent some time boring Dave and Martin with talk of the "old days"!
The next morning Dave and I arrived at MFJ at 9:00 AM and met Martin in his office. Martin's office contains quite a collection of vintage Amateur Radio equipment and printed material. Martin asked us to step through an entry way beyond a ceiling high bookshelf in his office where we discovered his "private" workbench. Martin said he still loves to tinker and design things and when it gets a little hectic he steps in there to "play". One very interesting thing Martin is really dedicated to at the moment is antennas. He seems quite determined to produce effective antennas that are small that can be utilized from apartments or hotel rooms. Given the current situation of many hams living in antenna restricted areas, this could prove quite beneficial to Amateur Radio. One such antenna Martin showed us was a small tuner to which you could attach a counterpoise and a whip. It can be configured with various whip lengths and a base or top loading coil to operate on 7 MHz or higher. This has some interesting potential.
We began touring the MFJ offices and then moved to the manufacturing area of the building. The manufacturing area is a basic assembly line where a product moves down the line to the next work station and personnel perform a specific task in the assembly process. During my previous trip many years ago, all of the work was performed by hand. Today MFJ uses computerized and automated equipment to place and solder surface mount components on circuit boards and utilizes a wave soldering facility for other products.
In previous years, MFJ employed over 200 people on the assembly lines. Each line worked on one specific product and MFJ maintained a large inventory of products in their warehouse. Now the assembly line has been transformed, the employees cross trained for more than one product and the inventory reduced to practically zero. As orders arrive, they are processed and scheduled to begin production on a specific day. For example, if orders arrived on Monday for 100 antenna analyzers, they are entered into the computer system by the front office personnel, the system puts the production process in motion automatically by scheduling cabinet processing at the metals facility, lining up circuit boards and components for surface mounting then finally the different components of the product (cabinet, completed circuit board, etc.) begin moving down the final assembly line for completion. The 100 antenna analyzers could then be shipped as early as Thursday or Friday of the same week after a smooth manufacturing process with no final product inventory retained.
The process is practically identical at Ameritron, Hygain, Mirage and Vectronics.
MFJ manufactures all of the materials for their products in-house ranging from the metal work for cabinets, rotor housings, gears, air wound and toroid coils, bushings, variable capacitors and cabinet labeling. As I said, just about everything except resistors and fixed capacitors. Martin jokingly said they thought about making those………he may not have been joking!
We left around 4:30 PM and headed back to the hotel. It had been a very long day that was spent on our feet most of the time, but the operation is quite impressive. One unique thing Dave and I noticed separately from the tour as we went around the various buildings and facilities is that Martin called each employee by name and everyone addressed him as "Mr. Jue". Even Randy, Steve Pan and a few of the employees that have been with him for 30 years!
Martin and Randy met us again that evening for dinner over which we had similar conversation as the night before.
The next morning we again met Martin at his office and discussed a number of things about Amateur Radio and ARRL. Later in the morning Martin wanted to take us on a tour of Starkville and Mississippi State University. Martin grew up in Greenville, MS, a town on the Mississippi River just across the Arkansas border about 125 miles west of Starkville. His great-grandfather came to the United States from China to work on the transcontinental railroad. After that his great-grandfather went back to China but his son (Martin's grandfather) remained in the United States. Martin's parents owned and operated a small country store on the outskirts of Greenville. As a kid, he became interested in electronics and started hanging around a TV shop in town. The TV shop owner was not a ham, but allowed Martin to stop by and learn some good things. When he graduated from High School, he traveled to Starkville to study Electrical Engineering at Mississippi State. Martin taught at Mississippi State for a while and actually completed the academic requirements for a PhD in Electrical Engineering. At the same time, he was starting MFJ in a small hotel room in downtown Starkville that he rented for $16/month. He was later booted out of the hotel room for making too much noise! He never got around to writing his dissertation because, according to Martin, "starting an electronics business was more important to me at the time than a PhD." Of course, the rest is now quite an impressive and successful history.
For lunch Martin invited a number of the "ham" employees to join us at Barnhill's, a southern buffet establishment that caters to a southern cooking style. The employees that joined us were mostly young graduates of Mississippi State who were very excited to have been invited to have lunch with us.
After lunch, Dave and I left for the airport where I dropped him off for his flight back to Connecticut and I hit the highway.
Martin is a staunch supporter of ARRL who has made a tremendous impact on Amateur Radio. You would be hard pressed to find an active ham that doesn't have at least one piece of equipment in the shack manufactured in Starkville, MS by one of his Martin's companies.
You will recall last summer Martin had to have heart bypass surgery. I'm happy to report that he has recovered well and says he feels great.
His hospitality was extremely gracious and it was a trip worth taking that strengthened the rapport with one of our major advertisers and donors.
73 Joel W5ZN